Bankruptcy's Brink

On top of the smashing defeat his machine took in the election (TIME, Nov. 16), New Jersey's Democratic Boss Frank Hague had a new headache last week. His own Jersey City, where he has been Mayor for 25 years, was going broke so fast that there was no use pretending any longer.

Boss Hague's paternalistic city government is the most expensive in the U.S. (annual budget: $44,000,000), considering that only 301,000 citizens have to support it. Boss Hague once got great hunks of revenue by soaking his city's railroads at treble the usual U.S. rates. But New Jersey's steady-going Governor Charles Edison put a stop to that. Now a county tax board appointed by Governor Edison--after he kicked out a Hague-controlled board on charges of misconduct--is trying to bring some logic into Jersey City's inflated property-tax assessments.

In the tones of a tortured saint, Frank Hague cried last week: "If the county board is permitted to go through with this program it will mean the destruction of the financial stability of Jersey City. . . .The ultimate result will be the closing of the Medical Center, the closing of 50% of our schools, the reduction of our police and fire departments by one-half. ..."

Then, in a peroration calculated to bring tears to the eyes of a brass monkey, the Mayor pointed to his 30 years of serving Jersey City "faithfully and honorably," pleaded with his citizens "to continue the confidence in me and my associates," promised that fate would vindicate his administration "because our cause is just and our courts are honest."

Governor Edison replied: "For a long time past the city of Jersey City has given the appearance of solvency only through resort to bookkeeping sleight of hand and other methods that in commercial life are termed 'high finance.'

"This is the first time, I believe, that Mayor Hague has really expressed his concern that the game is about up--that he will not be able to dominate the city much longer . . . that an honest tax rate based on honest assessments would not furnish enough funds to pay the crushing expenses of his management of the city.

"These admissions . . . make me wonder ... if the only solution for the city is a thoroughgoing reorganization. . . ."

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